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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750711">The Invisible Enemy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnregisteredCookie/pseuds/UnregisteredCookie'>UnregisteredCookie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Collaboration of Glitches [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hollow Knight (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Digital Art, Drabble, Glitches</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:49:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>499</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750711</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnregisteredCookie/pseuds/UnregisteredCookie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Knight wanders through the halls of the City of Tears only to be attacked by a cheater.</p><p>Features my art!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Collaboration of Glitches [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867951</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Invisible Enemy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The City of Tears probably wasn’t the original name of the city, but it was the one that the Knight decided to give it. The perpetual rain from somewhere above loaned the name meaning, and any potential records that might have the original name were so saturated with moisture that they couldn’t make out a word. There might be documents elsewhere, untouched by the rain, but they couldn’t be bothered to commit themself to looking. So, City of Tears it was.<br/>
<br/>
The halls of the City of Tears, the Knight found after a time, was gloomy. They found themself walking down one such hallway, after sitting down at the bench that Cornifer once sat beside, and started walking, looking down at their map as they do so.<br/>
<br/>
The city by now was well-explored--there were only a few places that they hadn’t been able to reach, particularly a curious ledge to the east of the Soul Sanctum. Perhaps there was something else among the ruined kingdom that would let them ascend-- They hear a cry.<br/>
<br/>
They lower their map and look up, peering down the hall, as ready to fight any of the husks roaming about the corridors as they have ever been. They know which one patrols this place--a large, lance-wielding bug, grounded with a lack of wings and gifted with a tendency to charge. After all, they had killed it once before.<br/>
<br/>
And it always puzzled them, somewhere in the back of their mind, how they kept coming back, reconstituting themselves every time that they settled down to rest and gather their thoughts--but by now, they were well past that problem, more focused on the issue at hand.<br/>
<br/>
They hear footsteps approach, but there is nothing there.<br/>
<br/>
They aren’t sure what to think of it at first--as they had rested, the husk should be here. It should be standing before them, ready to fight, but the only thing that they see is the hallway spanning ahead of them, a stark contradiction to what they <em>hear.</em> And they <em>hear</em> something approaching from ahead, but they don’t know what.<br/>
<br/>
They don’t move. The footsteps are before them now. And then--<br/>
<em>CRACK.<br/>
</em><br/>
Splinter, shake--they explode from themself, gather themself up, grasp their nail and swipe before them, pointedly ignoring the fractures of their chitin and the numbing distant pain that comes with it. The swipes are blind--they think they nick their aggressor, see orange blood flying from nowhere, but then it’s gone until they turn abruptly and swipe haphazardly behind them.<br/>
<br/>
<em>CRACK<br/>
<br/>
</em>Snap, <em>boom--</em>gather themself up again, clench their nail, summon their soul for vengeance and--<br/>
<br/>
There it is.<br/>
<br/>
The large lancer gives a final yelp as its husk gets sent into the air, collapsing to the floor with a dull thud. The orange ooze leaks from its shell, turns to nothing. Their enemy is dead.<br/>
<br/>
Their invisible enemy.<br/>
<br/>
They can only stare for a moment, gripping their nail, staring at the corpse.<br/>
<br/>
<em>...What?</em></p>
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